1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to advertising displays, as used at point of purchase and, more particularly, to a display which uses animation to enhance its visual appeal.
2. Background Art
In the highly competitive advertising industry, designers strive to develop point of purchase advertising displays that are highly visually appealing. At the same time, the cost of these displays must be maintained within a reasonable range to allow periodic replacement, as when a company adopts a new advertising theme or wishes to prevent overexposure of the consumer to a particular display.
Conventional displays range from one dimensional, fixed displays to relatively elaborate, animated displays.
It is popular amongst some advertisers to associate their product with snow and/or ice. Simulated snowfall gives the consumer a sense that the product is cool and refreshing.
Heretofore, many advertising displays using simulated snowfall have been relatively passive in nature. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,587,620 (Hormann) and 2,897,619 (Zens) both disclose such advertising displays.
Hormann circulates fingers through an accumulated supply of snow simulating flakes to cause the individual flakes to be elevated and deposited in front of a scene.
Zens continuously conveys simulated snow flakes to the top of a display and distributes the flakes so that they fall uniformly across the width in front of a display area.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,243,183 (Scranage) and 5,200,239 (Chen) both disclose systems for depositing artificial snow flakes from overhead upon a tree. Chen uses a recirculating arrangement.
Another known decorative object employs a sealed, partially clear case which contains a finite amount of liquid. A small scene and/or figure is mounted within the liquid. Discrete snow simulating particles are suspended in the liquid and have sufficient weight to fall under the force of gravity through the liquid. The user manually picks the case up and turns it upside down long enough to allow the particles to accumulate at the top of the case. By then righting the case, the particles float downwardly to simulate a shower of snow over the figure/scene.
In order for this type of system to be used in the advertising industry, the case would have to be turned upside down and righted at prescribed intervals. Thus it is relatively impractical to keep such a device "animated".
While the above structures can be employed to produce an attractive display, there are limitations built in to these displays by reason of the flakes moving downwardly principally under the force of gravity. That is, the snow simulating flakes flow relatively gently downwardly as snow would move under calm conditions.